Research has shown that a large number of the health problems in society are either caused in whole or in part by an unhealthy lifestyle that often result in poor eating habits, high stress levels, lack of exercise, poor sleep habits, and so on. Recognizing this fact, the field of physical fitness assessment and testing has seen an increasing demand with rising public interest in physical fitness and the relevance of performance to soldiers, firefighters, athletes, and the like. Moreover, it is used in the field of patient rehabilitation. These days, physical fitness is considered a measure of the body's ability to function efficiently and effectively in work and leisure activities, to be healthy, to resist hypokinetic diseases, and to meet emergency situations. Accordingly, a general-purpose physical fitness program must address the following essentials: cardio-respiratory endurance, muscular strength and muscular endurance, joint flexibility, and body composition, which are health related issues, However, the sport-related issures are also included, which are muscular power, agility, speed and coordination, etc. Scoring high on those physical fitness assessments usually indicates better heath and better exercise performance. However, good physical fitness is not easy to obtain and certainly can not be achieved overnight. It requires a person to maintain a healthy lifestyle while exercise in a regular basis. Nevertheless, for motivating a person to live a healthier life and exercise regularly, it would be a great help if data of detailed physical fitness can be provided to that person in a daily basis to be used as a guide for achieving a healthier lifestyle, for monitoring progress, and for brainstorming solutions when problems arise.
Conventionally, a fitness assessment is a series of measurements that help determine physical fitness. The basic formula of any conventional fitness assessment is to evaluate body mass index (BMI), resting heart rate and blood pressure, and aerobic fitness before, during or after a moderate workout that may last a specific period of time. There are many fitness assessment products available on the market, including weight scales with BMI monitoring ability and tread mills with heart rate/respiratory monitoring ability, and so on. However, all those fitness assessment products have the following shortcomings:
(1) The fitness assessment can only be conducted on the specific exercise platform;
(2) The result of the fitness assessment can be very subjective since it is provided from assessors sometimes only basing on the readings from those fitness assessment products while those assessors might not be particularly well trained;
(3) Those products with balance evaluation system are imported that are bulky and expensive;
(4) It is required for the user to be applied by at least a set of electrodes for enabling a wireless or wired EMG test to be perform;
(5) In those conventional fitness assessment products, it is common to use a game console, such as Wii fit, for motivating its users to perform the designated exercises. However, such game console neither is not appropriate for elders, nor is not therapeutic effective in clinical practice;
(6) There is no dynamic balance monitoring for the control of the nervous, muscular and skeletal systems relating to the motions of upper and lower limbs that is available in conventional fitness assessment products with game console; and
(7) The conventional fitness assessment products with game console are not designed with the ability relating to the recognizing of motion accuracy and coordination.